Gambusia .... What will eat them?

Margaret King

I have a few water features in the garden. 3 of them, including an old bath and smaller size ponds have gambusia. I would like to eradicate them humanely by buying fish that will eat them.... All. Then i would like to get some native fish. I also have frogs and when they lay eggs in the ponds with gambusia, i note that the gambusia chew the tails off the tadpoles ☹️
I live in Sydney. Thanks for any advice.

Mooo

Hi Margaret & Welcome
Gold fish will gobble them up You may need to make the frogs their own pond, I have goldfish in a pond(old spa) and next to them I have a dedicated frog pond also ..

Heintz.G

I have a question for you, is Gambusia not classified as a pest down there in NSW?

And welcome to the forum Margaret.

Margaret King

Thanks for answering Mooo and Heintz. I do have the frogs in another pond but they lay their eggs in the other ponds. I moved some frog spawn the other day and was amazed to see all the tadpoles having a feeding frenzy with it

Margaret King

Where did the rest of the post go? Are posts limited?

Heintz.G

Margaret King said:

Where did the rest of the post go? Are posts limited?

Not that I know of, as far as I can the thread has not been altered at all.

Mooo

Rookie error maybe? Wasn't me, I will only delete if inappropriate )
Pretty sure they are rated pests Heintz .
I wouldn't worry about taddy's nibbling on a few eggs, they must do it in nature

Frayk

Gambusia - Pure evil.

Margaret King

I didn't know they were gambusia or anything about gambusia. When i was a kid, we called them guppies. I got these out of a local waterway a few years back to eat the mosquitos. I just want to get rid of them humanely. The frogs lay eggs in their pond and not in the frog/fish pond. I kept seeing tadpoles with their tails chewed off☹️

Mooo

I'd catch em and feed them to the nearest chicken

Margaret King

So i got a couple of goldfish, and they are struggling because the water quality is bad. I took them out and put them in with 2 others and there appears to be fighting. One of them jumped clean out of the bowl. It is a large ceramic bowl, not too small for 4 fish. So i guess i'm going to go with the freezing technique, clean out the old bath and put the goldfish back in.

Heintz.G

Freezing them or just feed them to the birds either way works.

Mooo

Re..The taddies tails, Are you sure they are being bitten off?
Their tails do shrink(get absorbed) as they morph into their adult state

animal_expert01

The goldfish will not survive in summer also they can not be kept in a bowl they will die you would keep them in the pond in winter but bring them inside in summer if you want them to survive... As for the gambusia just freeze them, feed them to chooks, feed them to cats or just slam them on a hard solid floor.

[Deleted User]

Kill the gambusia!!!
I think thoose are mosquito fish? anyway just kill em'